Steps taken - Straighten horizon by about 1(ish) degress & crop off the resulting black edge and no more. Hunt down and get rid of those nasty little noise pixels, resize, USM and save. This is essentially the image TTL.
I chased this storm through the suburbs of Sydney for 40 kms till I hit the coast and found a spot that gave me the uninterupted view across the ocean to the backend of the dying storm.
I had not taken a shot anything like this before and was hugely unsure how to capture it. The storm was fabulous and the lighting was a concern for me.
It took 3 goes to land this shot. I was trying to focus on a black sky so there was a lot of guesswork. Aperture and shutter was guessed again. When I did get the shot I hoped that when I got it home it would live up to my hopes. It did, especially when shown large.
What I love about it is the detail on the rocks, even to the reflection of the lightning in the little puddles on the left. The windows in the clouds give it a 3 dimensional feel. And that beautiful, fortuitous bolt says it all for me.
Thanks very much to all those who voted. A special thanks to those who commented or made it their favourite. This challenge has been so much fun for me. I am somewhat new here and thought it would be a long time before I got close to the top 10.
Yippppeeee!!!!
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Place: 4 out of 435 Avg (all users): 7.0432 Avg (commenters): 8.6667 Avg (participants): 7.0874 Avg (non-participants): 6.9167 Views since voting: 4921 Views during voting: 262 Votes: 139 Comments: 18 Favorites: 15 (view)
Focus, lighting and color perfection! Anyone would have thought we were commenting on a controlled studio shoot but to do this out in the elements,....and of lightning!!!!......I takes me hat off to your exquisite capture. Just magic!
amazing shot...i would love to be able to capture a shot like this. what makes this one different is the absolute clarity and the colour and lighting on the rocks in the forefront. fantastic work.
spectacular! I am always amazed at how one can capture lightning with perfect focus and clarity on the strikes much like what you have done here.
I also love the tones in the foreground.8
Wow - wonderful capture. I love the texture in the sky and in the rocks. At first I thought it may look better with the darker right side cropped out, but then after looking at it again, you would have lost the beautiful texture in the rocks on the right, so I wouldn't change it! Great level on the horizon. Wonderful Shot!
An incredible image that is crisp, sharp and properly framed and composed - a technical success in every way. From an artistic standpoint, it has significant impact being richly colored with excellant detail. This image would have worked as a black and white as well. A perfect demonstration of the power of properly controlled light and focus. Well done.
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